Space Girl

Patrick Rothfuss "The Name of the Wind"

Just finished this little racy one. I can't tell you how stoked I am when I find a new fantasy author who gets it right from the first page.

When Kwothe's entire family is slaughtered due to a song his father was composing, he searches for further meaning behind the murders. Along the way, he becomes dangerous in his own right, stumbling into success despite poverty and prejudice. I read this one fast as lightning - Rothfuss makes it look like he can write in his sleep. What a breathtaking debut.

Five stars.

Susan Callahan et al. "Mother's Need Time Out Too"

Good to offload a lot of guilt next time you want to do something - anything - for yourself but feel compelled to go clean the bathroom. After reading this I realised that letting go of some things around the house would free me up to have more fun. Sounds like a no-brainer, I know, but you'd be surprised how hard it is for many of us mothers to neglect housework, especially if you're a neat-freak like me.

My children like me a lot more when I'm fun, and although I'm going to spend the rest of the week sleeping on last week's bed linen and watching the shower tiles getting grubby, at least I have some good memories to show for it!

Three stars.

Picasso, wigs, pink hair, art

Been having a lot of fun lately. The little ones dragged out some of my old wigs used in drama performances and we had bit of a laugh pretending we had Big Hair. N looks so different!

However, when I tried it on, channeling my best Cher, well, it looked kinda normal!

Then on Sunday we went on a tour of the PIcasso's Collection exhibition at GOMA. It was so much better than I expected, and our guide, Margaret, had a good grasp of how pieces in his collection had influenced him. I felt pretty refreshed after that, so I went home and worked on this:

Later, N and I thought it would be fun to make her fringe pink. Okay, well maybe, I thought it would be fun and she just went along with it! I used cochineal - like I used to at high school. N was very cooperative and gave me some great poses! She's such a lamb.

One of the most enjoyable weekends I've had in ages. Painting again was like meditating and I came out of it so refreshed. And with chalk all over my legs. O decided that if Mummy was going to paint, he'd raid her art box and use the closest canvas available. I forgot to rub it off and picked N up from a party with it all over me. I don't *think* anyone noticed!

Art as the bridge between life and death

 

I finally finished reading the Autumn edition of Artful Blogging today. It was so inspiring reading the way web logs have helped so many creative people, particularly women, connect with both their art and with an audience that appreciates them. I find it uplifting to hear how an online journal can take away that sense of isolation that many artists feel, how it can spur people on to do their best work, or simply to try in the first place.

I was moved by what Helene Deroubaix had to say:

I am constantly living between life and death, and art is the bridge over this divide, over my dark puddle of muddy rain, over my secrets, over my twisted forests of doubt.

I've often felt the healing power of art on my mental and spiritual health - when I don't create I feel down. That's my very Aussie way of summing up what Helene put so eloquently! ;-]

Most of the time I'd like to spend creatively get spent on the children, not surprisingly. I take N to ballet on Saturday mornings. Here's O and I taking turns photographing one another while we wait for her to come out:

I've also been taking her to speech and drama lessons. She won a little ribbon at her last eisteddfod (eh, can't spell that!), so Mum bought her flowers and chocolates. You should have seen her eyes light up!

Spring!

Well, we've had the August winds in Brisbane and they seemed to last a long time this year but today, finally, it was warm and sunny. My jasmine went insane - a motherload of blossom. So N and I made a few festive wreaths. She looks so lovely!

It was a busy day. N turned O into "Batman" and there were a few grizzles when I had to remove the paint from our hero's face.

I made up for it by serving up some homemade baked goodness.

They went down well and then O had a nap. Peace at last. Tomorrow I'm having some time off to do less "Mummy" things. I plan a day of painting and then later, a visit from Mum should keep me laughing.

Did I mention how great the weather is?

Working girl

Erp! All I'm doing right now is getting better at my job. It's taken me a full year to really get my head in the space of being an owner/manager of an advertising production business. There was a lot to learn. When I first started here, I did the 'books' - invoicing, quoting, BAS, etc. I still do some of this but mostly now I project manage.

We've got plenty on so it keeps me hoping and a couple of months ago I realized I needed to introduce some systems to the way we run things. My husband, not unexpectedly, thought this was unnecessary. He's a creative from head to toe and organization is a dirty word. Of course, he never knew just how much we had on or where it was at.

So I bought Project X software for Mac. It's delightful, and although probably a bit hardcore for our humble needs, it's helping me keep on track. Nifty the way I can make these neat little lists of what we've got on, how much is finished, what has to happen next and who's doing it. Husband is impressed. :-]

So that's me for the moment. Getting a bit square-eyed in front of the laptop.

GenCon, SupaNova and fame

Back in July I helped two of my favourite people on a booth at GenCon here in Brisbane. Wendy's partner is Stewart McKenny, a really wonderful illustrator and all-round great guy. Lucky me, I got to enjoy the convention and absorb the reflected glory!

After about six hours of smiling a lot, I felt a bit knackered. So I walked around enjoying the CosPlay, the old school D&D booths, not to mention plenty of coffee and unhealthy snack food. Man, that was tough. ;-]

Next year though, I think I'll have to have an outfit of my own. Now how to choose between BattleStar Gallactica, Star Wars, Star Trek and Xena...

Harry Harrison "A Stainless Steel Rat Trio"

I picked this one up in astonishment recently. Thought it was out of print. I don't recall reading the prequels to the Stainless Steel Rat originals, so this should be a treat. It's not high-brow, it is a lot of fun!

I was once told by a university tutor that I had the "reading taste of a pre-pubescent boy". This is one of those occasions where I'll have to agree with her. Don't care. Love a good romp and Harrison's egocentric rat with his own set of rules is someone I'd secretly like to be!
3 stars

Scott Lynch "Red Seas Under Red Skies"

This, the sequel to Lies was more interesting than the first. Now that the central characters have been established, Lynch explored them in more detail. I like his writing - it reminds me so much of Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat series. Nice one.
3 stars

Janny Wurtz "Stormed Fortress"

I must be getting old. Or impatient. I've loved Wurtz's Wars of Light and Shadow for a long time now but this latest offering leaves me impatient. There are so many lose ends. I'm even getting a bit tired of Arithorn and Elaira having their choices so limited. I want some resolution and for the writing to be a little less purple.
2 stars